As a Dale Carnegie Course instructor for many years, I learned that problem solving begins with identifying the problem.

Most of the time people skip right to the solution – whatever they can come up with and as soon as possible – it usually doesn’t end well.

Of course, the best way is to spend a lot of time trying to define the problem for which you are trying to solve.

The same goes for adding meaning to life:  what is the goal for killing ourselves to accomplish something; do we really want to; is it all about the money (spoiler alert: it rarely is).

Here’s where a mission statement comes in.

Three things.

In three phrases, not sentences and easily memorable.

For example, here’s mine:

1. Empower young people.
2. Promote truth telling.
3. Support media and music.

For #1, I could have said teach college as I do at NYU, but empower young people is a whole lot more challenging and makes me focus on the real picture.

#2, I could have said expose greedy media companies and those who would deprive musicians of making a living, but to promote truth telling is a bigger payoff for everyone.

And #3,  I could have said write about media and music but I’d soon get bored because the real challenge is to keep those in power honest and to hold them to their actions.

Your mission, should you accept it is to put together a memorable mission statement, you’ll never veer off course and your time will be most wisely spent.